They Make Me Feel I'm Falling Down
by Libra-Library
Summary: OC-focused AU. A collection of oneshots establishing my characters and their relationships in the team, moved from AO3 and put together for one big story. Light/early oc/canon, content warnings inside.


**They Make Me Feel I'm Falling Down**

 **A/N: A long time ago I started writing some little oneshots to play around with my OCs' characters/abilities in an OCs-included AU verse and then the other day my friend joined the fandom and ended up really liking them so I made another story linking the first two slightly and then decided "well dang I can tie this up and make it a sort of self-contained fic WOOHOO". So I'm bringing them over from my AO3 and putting them together.**

 **Please be warned: there's a good deal of violence, some body horror, mentions of death (a good deal of this focuses on the aftermath of I, Chiro), and a character experiencing possible hallucinations and dissociation. There's also early but alluded to OC/Canon for two seperate pairings, because somewhere along the line I realized I didn't care if people thought I was pushing Relationship Sues and that was a good day.**

 **I don't own Hyperforce god do I wish.**

 **Story 1: Merge**  
 **During and Post-Skeleton King**

R'lya cautiously opened her eyes, surprised to find she had suffered no apparent harm. The flashbang had done its job; perhaps too well, she realized, as while Skeleton King was halfway across the chamber cursing, Chiro was on the floor behind her rubbing his eyes.

Oh well. Better a temporary white out than a staff through the ribcage. Still, R'lya ran to check on him. "Chiro? You good?"

The teen blinked back tears, unable to focus on the monkey standing over him. "I...think so? Nothing feels broken at least."

R'lya sighed, adrenaline still surging through her system. She ran her eyes over the boy, and smiled. "Maybe not, but not exactly a perfect maneuver. You're hurt."

She leaned over, wiping the blood away from above the chosen one's eye. "Look on the bright side, girls dig scars, right?"

Chiro chuckled weakly, blinking as his vision slowly faded back in. "I'll have to ask Jinmay late-"

His words caught in his throat as his rescuer came into view. R'lya was about to ask what was wrong, when she noticed the pale, unbroken skin under the blood.

 _But...where is it coming from..._ Another little droplet splashed onto the boy's face, and he shuddered in horror. Finally catching on, R'lya glanced down at her coatfront, and...

 _Oh. I'm the one bleeding._

The soft lavender of her coat was slowly developing a radial gradient of red violet, spreading outwards from a ragged gash in the fabric. The garment soaked through, excess dripping from the hem to R'lya's feet. Across the room, Ellison started screaming. But all R'lya could her was the sound of her heart thumping rapidly, forcing more and more crimson life out of the wound.

She was dizzy now, backing away from Chiro in a jerky and unstable fashion. He reached out to her, frightened warnings stuttering in the back of his throat, and R'lya's heel hit the edge of the pool of ooze. She tilted backwards, and the shouts of the team finally emerged from the tinnitus before she crashed into the putrid sludge.

Chiro went into autopilot, lunging for the injured spider monkey despite the warnings of his companions. He fumbled for R'lya's paw, managing to just barely latch onto a single digit, when the unnoticed Skeleton King tackled him. She slipped just out of his grasp, and the pool splashed with a sickening squelch.

The boy growled, pinned but defiant. Above him, the King smirked. "Shame. She was a fiery little warrior, such promise. But that is what blind faith and loyalty rewards."

He brandished his staff above his head, and Chiro glared. One sharp, bladed side dripped, and for the third time in as many minutes, he found himself with R'lya's blood on his face.

"Don't worry, boy. Your's can adorn the other sid-"

A gold and blue blur flew in from out of nowhere, crashing into the skeletal dictator and knocking him off of the young hero. Ellison screeched in utter rage, raking her claws against the villain's face. The rest of the monkey team was at Chiro's side immediately, helping him to his feet. He shook them off, and started for the pool. "We have to help R'lya!"

Gibson grabbed his arm to stop him, and the boy looked down at his feet. His right boot had come down in a puddle of blood, sending large streaks up the material. Unable to restrain his panic, Chiro backpedaled, panting in shock. He didn't even need the power primate to understand what the others were thinking.

 _There's so much..._

The ooze took on a different viscosity as R'lya sank deeper. While it bubbled and splashed on the surface, the consistency became syrupy and thick as it enveloped her.

 _That's wonderful,_ she wondered drowsily, _Gibson's gonna want to examine this stuff later. Hope my copious bloodloss doesn't contaminate it._

The substance wormed its way into her clothes, and pressed painfully into the wound. She cringed, and the flash of pain shocked her out of her exsanguinated haze. She was alive. For whatever reason, she was still alive.

And good lord was she _mad._

Ellison continued to rip into Skeleton King's face, screaming in an incomprehensible fury. Having placed their priorities with protecting the still-intact snubnose, the rest of the team attempted to coax her down while continuing the attack themselves. While they felt helpless to save R'lya, they were more than capable of avenging her, and threw themselves into the fight. Behind them, the ooze pool rippled and bubbled unseen.

That is, until a giant bubble on the surface exploded, sending a spray of gunk across the floor. The combatants turned, momentarily stunned out of their animosity.

R'lya was coated in the goop, huffing and shaking. A mass of the substance was rippling across her torso, visible through the tear in her coat, and sinking deeper into the wound.

Ellison brightened, scraping her claws across the flabbergasted king's face once more for good measure, before dropping down. "R'lya! You're alive!"

The aforementioned spider monkey looked past her friend, glaring at the Skeleton King with such hatred it was a wonder he didn't burst into flames. Her friends were all alive and mostly untouched. The ooze was sealing up her wound, and she'd live. The citadel was crashing in around them. She had to actively search for a reason to be upset. And she found it.

"YOU RUINED MY COAT YOU UNDEAD FREAK!"

Ellison's smile widened. "You're also unbelievably mad! Everyonegetbehindsomething."

When R'lya lunged, half of the pool came with her.

"Where's my cookies and juice? I'm supposed to get cookies and juice."

Gibson shook his head, but smiled. "That doesn't actually help you regenerate blood, you know. Donors are just given snacks to keep them from exerting themselves too soon after."

"Gibson. Half my bloodstream is not blood anymore. I might not even be technically a monkey after that. If I don't get an edible medal of valor for that stunt I will exert myself by tearing this robot apart in search of cookies."

Otto poked his head in as he passed by. "Don't worry, Jinmay's in the kitchen makin' snickerdoodles! There's a whole baking sheet with your name on it."

"Now that's more like it." She sighed, flopping back over onto the table. Gibson checked the vitals one final time, then excused himself, citing worries that Ellison and Otto would spark a foodfight (again). She chuckled, then glanced over at Antauri. "How are the kids?"

"Jinmay has recovered quite well from her ordeal. And Chiro is just relieved that everyone is alright."

"So you haven't told him yet."

"I had assumed you would want to explain it yourself."

R'lya nodded, lifting her arm up to the light and staring intently. Under the fur and flesh, thin tendrils of ooze undulated, circulating alongside her blood. "He won't like this. He'll figure out some tenuous reason to blame himself; I know how you hero types are."

"'You hero types?' And you don't consider yourself one after today?"

"I was under the impression that heroes consciously make self-sacrifices. I'm going to be completely honest, if I had time to think it over, I wouldn't have done what I did. There were a million different ways to save the kid, most of which we all could've walked away from no worse for wear."

The room went silent. Antauri was surprised; R'lya had, for all her gratitude towards the team, kept herself distant. She really only visited the robot when Ellison dragged her along, and limited most interactions to polite socializing and combat strategizing. As cautious as her words were, there was a note of scorching bitterness in them. As satisfied as she was that everyone had survived, she was undeniably hurt. And it wasn't like her to let anyone see that.

She turned her head to face him again, unable to hide her weary expression. "What's gonna happen to me?" she murmured.

"...I don't know. The fact that you were able to alter the Formless ooze in the citadel suggests that some sort of connection has been made, but Skeleton King appeared unable to control you himself."

"That's...comforting, actually. But, hm...I wonder..."

She stared intently at her arm again, and focused so hard she felt a headache coming on. The ooze under her skin rippled, but eventually grew still. R'lya sighed, then shot Antauri a glance. "Well, so much for th-"

With a crack, her arm shifted, wicked curved appendages jutting outward from the spaces in between her fingers. She yelped, and Antauri backpedaled. The growths halted, then began to recede, as R'lya watched in silent shock. With a gentle slurping noise, they finally drew back into her paw, and the tendrils drew back through her arms and into her chest.

The two were silent for several moments, and R'lya slowly turned to make eye contact with Antauri.

"...Not a WORD of this to Ellison. Not a WORD."


End file.
